Laundry-tag system



Oct. 21 1924.

F. E. KLEIN LAUNDRY TAG SYSTEM Filed Feb. l2. 1923 munimu '5V MM.

Patented Oct 21 1924.

UNITED STATESA PATENT oEFicE.

FRED E. KLEIN, 0F CINCINNATI, OHIO, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO MORRIS G. ROSEN- THAL, 0F CLEVELAND, OHIO.

LAUNDRY-TAG SYSTEM.

` .Application led February To all lwhom t may 00a-cern: v

Be it known that I, FRED E. KLEIN, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Cincinnati, in the county ofHamilton and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Laundry- Tag Systems, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact descriptlon, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, forming part of this specification.

My invention relates to systems used 1n l the marking of laundry, particularly rough dry work. U D I One great diiculty arising 1n connection with the laundry systems at the present time is the fact that the garments are either torn by the'tags attached to them at the laundry or marred by the printed marks thereon.

There are also tags which are attached to a piece of fabric, said tags being made of fabric themselves, but it is often hard to get at the pieces of the tag to separate them and tear them ofi", or to get at draw threads to ull them out.

t is the object of my invention toy pro vide a tag which is of permanent character,

and is particularly adapted to mounting on a long bar, of the type known as pin bar inlaundrles, for collecting the articles marked after having been washed, and which tag is attached to the articles to be marked b stitching that is cut ofi' automatically by mechanism on the pin bar, without danger of cutting the articles In this connection I have worked with the tag or marking plate, devised by Morris G. Rosenthal, and described in his ap lication for patent Serial No. 551,882, led pril 12, 1922.

I accomplish my objects by that certain new and useful construction and arrangement of parts to be hereinafter morespe- Aciiically pointed out and claimed.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a top plan 'view of a p1n bar devised for particular use with my devices.

Figure 2 is a side elevation thereof.

Figure 3 isa plan view of one of the metal tags.

Figure 4 is a view of a knife ring.

Figure 5 is a view o-f a knife thimble.

Figure 6 is a view of a piece of goods marked with one of the tags.

Figure 7 is a perspective view of another form of ring knife.

12, 1923. Serial No. 618,482.

The metal tag used by me is not eatly changed over the form shown in the osenthal application hitherto referred to. It is formed with a flat body 1 which at one end has two holes cut therein. as at 2, 2, said holes having narrow necks 3, 3, opening to the edge of the tag. The center of the tag is cut with a rectangular aperture 4 of a shape'to fitover a pin bar said bar so called, from the fact that marking tags pinned to garments in the laundry have been mounted -on bars of the same type in the past.

The central aperture terminates at the end Y away from the holes 2, 2, in a narrow taper 5, along-side of which taper are formed the stitching holes 6, 6. The slot portion 5 referably will extend fairly Well across a 6ine connecting the center of the two holes v Such a tag is mounted to a piece of fabric 7 by means of stitches 8, which pass through the garment and through the holes in the tag, and lie across the metal of the tag with the slot portion 5 underlying a 'portion thereof.

In other words a knife lying across the notch at 5 would cut the stitches lying across between the two holes. v

In this respect the plate differs from the Rosenthal plate above referred to, in which the portion 5 vdoes not come far enough between the twostitching holes to permit the cutting action noted.

I show in Figures 1 and 2 a long bar 8a of rectangular shape which preferably has an upwardly slanting forward end or tip. When a piece of laundry has been marked by stitching a tag thereto, as shown in Figure 6, and has been passed through the laundry, it is sorted into a pile, or bundle by selecting the tags of a given number or letter, and placing the tags over the long bar by inserting the bar through the central aperture. i

' The pieces of fabric depend from the bar, with the tags on the barand the operative as she counts and wraps the pieces pulls them one at a time off the bar land removes the tags therefrom.

One way of removing the tags will be to catch a knife blade in the notch portion 5 and give a slight pull, which will cut the attaching thread. A ring 10 with a curved knife 11, may be used for this purpose. Also a thimble 12, with a curved knife 13 may be used for a like purpose. The operative learns speed in this operation without danger of cutting the fabric at all and thus is facilitated by the presence of the notch portion 5, while the metal of the tag protectsthe knife from the garment and provides a wall against which the cut may be made.

As an automatic means for accomplishing this operation in pin bar method of sorting, l provide in the rectangular bar a chamber closed by a plate 14, within which is pivoted a knife blade 16. This knife has a rearwardly and upwardly formed blade, calculated to have a length which when a tag is pulled along the bar and the knife is in the position shown in Figure 2, the end 17 thereof will pass through the narrow end notch portion 5, and will sever the thread that secures the tag to the garment.

The knife is held in positio-n against a curved abutment 17a within the mounting chamber, by means of a spring 18. The result of this is that when the tag is set onto the pin bar and pushed past the knife, the knife will give way to let the tag pass, without the sharpened edge thereof touching the rag.

Upon removing an article., the operative merely pulls on the garment itself, slipping the tag past the knife, when lying against the abutment, whereupon the knife will cut the thread lying across the notch portion 5 in the tag.

The garment comes loose from theztag the moment the thread is cut, and it is not tight enough behind the tag anyhow, for the knife to cut the fabric.

The tags will stay on the accumulate beyond the kni It will be apparent that my system will operate very rapidly. Starching of fabrics will not result in making it difficult to remove the tag, and the goods will have no marks in them except the end of a piece of thread left from the stitching 'which does not pull away with the tag. This will not be objected to by the owner, and is not likely to be noticed, or'if it is, can be quickly withdrawn with the fingers.

A preferred form of ring is shown in F igure 7, in which the ring body is shown at 20, and the knife at 21. This knife has a return bend as shown and at the cutting edge it is pointed. At the widest portion of the point as at 22, the blade is wider than the slot 4 in the tag. Thus the operator can lay the blade against the tag, being guided by the slot and then ull the blade down along the tag, without anger of the point penetrating the fabric. The point will, however, engage under the threads and will present two cutting edges to them, either one of which will cut the threads and release the tag.

pin bar and will The blade at 22 should also be wider than the spacing of the adjacent walls of the holes 6, so that there will be no danger of the blade serving merely as a hook and pulln ing the threads. That is to say with the blade proportioned as stated, the sides of the point will engage the threads and sever them where they emerge through the holesA ,I believe the use of the taor so formed, with the knife so formed, results in a solution of the problem of safe and easy removal of tags from laundered garments, without defacing the garments. The presence of the extension 5 of the slot ff of the tag will not be necessary in this form.

By single loop of stitching in the claims that follow refer to the fact that but one strand or set of strands is used to attach the article. Two or more stitches along-side of each other to be cut by one knife in one stroke is what I mean by a single loop.

Having thus described my invention, what l. claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

l.. A laundry marking tag formed of rigid material and having' interspaced tlmrc'i in for a single loop of stitching whereby tho tag is secured to a garment and having an aperture in the located on a line tween the two holes and having a narrow portion extended across a line conncctin g the said two holes at the center, for the purpose described. Y

2. A laundry marking mechanism comprising a tag, and a bar, said tag being of rigid material and havin an aperture to fit over the bar, interspaoe holes in the tag through which a single loop of stitching is placed to secure the tag to a garment and a knife mounted on the bar and adapted when the tag is drawn along the bar in one direcplioln to cut the loop of stitching between said o es. e

3. A laundry marking mechanism comprising a tag, and a bar, said tag being of rigid material and having an aperture to fit over the bar, interspaced holes in the tag through vwhich a single loop of stitching is placed to 'secure the tag to a garment, and a knife mounted on the bar and adapted when the tag is drawn along the bar in one direction to cut the loop of stitching between said holes, said central aperture extendin in a narrow portion from the body of tie tag across a center line connecting the holes, said knife being adapted to pass through said narrow portion and sever the stitches where they lie across the same.

4:. A laundry marking mechanism comprising a tag and a bar, said tag being of rigid material and having an aperture to lit over the bar, inteispaced holes in the tag through which a single loop of stitching is placed to secure the tag to a garment, said aperture extending in a narrow extension to outer end of the bar, but heid in position a point between the two holes, and a knife to cut the threads lying across the narrow pivoted in the bar and depending to ay oint notch when pressed upon by the tag upon 110 to pass through said narrow portion o the withdrawingl the tag :from the har, as and i central aperture when the tag is passedover for the purpose. described.

the bar, said knife being free to move toward the bar when atag is thrust over it from the FRED E. KLElN. 

